Sunday, February 24, 2008

Flip Flopping Into The History Books

"LONDON, Ont. -- In a stunning late-night about-face, John Tory apparently outmanoeuvred his political opponents by announcing he was hanging in as leader.

It was one of the most stunning flip-flops in recent political history. Earlier yesterday, he had said he would consult with family and caucus about his future."For what its worth, the Ontario Conservatives would do well to keep John Tory.

Essentially, the 2/3s of delegates who voted status quo want to move the party towards the center, where it can win a few votes in the cities and where, once in power, it won't sacrifice the economy on the alter of free market theory.

The last 1/3, the party Rebs, think they can win with a hard right freak that will somehow get Toronto to vote for him via displays of rural machismo.

What this bunch doesn't understand is that Mike Harris was a fluke. When he got in in 1995 he was running against a deficit ridden NDP government and a female midget (can't remember her name at the moment). The Libs were up by ten percent until people saw them all together on stage during the debates and decided that times were tough and if they really wanted "small and cuddly" they would just vote for Yoda.

So ponk! Harris becomes Premier and proceeds to trash the place--a public sector strike every twenty minutes! the air filled with smoke from burning dumps! poverty in the streets! dysentery out in Walkerton (in the streets)!

But Harris goes into retirement just when the whole province goes into the toilet and escapes the voters wrath, leaving Ernie Eves here to get tagged with the cleanup and, eventually, defeat at the polls.

But people still remember what Harris did, especially how, after all the cutting and slashing, Ontario's finances were in the same awful shape they were in the day he stepped into office. Hence the extreme negative reaction Flaherty gets when he dares to open his mouth re the Ontario Liberals' spending priorities. What does this guy know about balancing a budget? Nothing, if you judge by his performance as finance minister in the Harris/Eves regime.

In any case, a "strong horse" ideologue from the back woods will not win in Ontario for a long time. Best keep the moderate you've got.

19 comments:

Anonymous
said...

A really good post. Sorry for the amazement!

You'd hope that when someone says they're going to "consult with family and caucus about [their] future", they could be taken at their word: they're thinking of resigning but haven't decided. No flip-flop there.

"But people still remember what Harris did, especially how, after all the cutting and slashing, Ontario's finances were in the same awful shape they were in the day he stepped into office."

I actually remember Harris getting Ontario back to work after the Bob Rae disaster. Bob Rae was such a flippin' disaster no responsible party will ever let him get anywhere near the finances ever again.

When I think back to the good old Bob Rae days with it's chronically high unemployment rate and extended recession, I'm glad that even the NDP won't have anything to do with him anymore and am eternally thankful that we had Mike Harris remove all his economically destructive policies and get Ontario back to work and on the road to prosperity.

Oh yeah, before I got distracted by Rae-bashing (still a delightful activity for us on the right) I was going to mention that cutting and slashing was a cross-partisan activity at the time. All governments at the provincial and federal level of different political stripes did it. Cutting and slashing was hardly a Harris only phenomenon.

"For what its worth, the Ontario Conservatives would do well to keep John Tory."

It's worth less than dogshit, coming from a self-serving Liberal who gets the shit fisked out of him on a daily basis.

Tory wasn't the problem; an out of control uberleft wing Ontario media which deliberately shut out debate during the debate, focusing on the religious schools initiative, was the problem. The CRTC needs to break the media monopolies in this country yesterday.

Four years from now, when Ontario has another 500,000 immigrants, it will be too late for the PCs. I see a bleak, unsustainable future for Ontario.

30% of males in their twenties who immigrate to Canada leave within 5 years. Basically, they vote Liberal, vote to drive up spending and to generally make Ontario a drag, then go back to their original countries when the bill comes due.

Since this statement of fact is backed by statistics, I have grounds, in theory, to take action against anyone who would defame the Billy Gene King label by calling me racist, xenophobe, etc. Govern yourselves accordingly.

"Funny, I remember Mike Harris for being somewhat responsible for the Walkerton disaster because of those deep cuts, which was the beginning of the end for him."

According to the Walkerton Inquiry it had more to do with piss poor regulation (not mandating private laboratories to report adverse results to the MOE immediately) and inspection failures (MOE inspectors assuming Well 5 was a secured groundwater source and not assessing it being one example) by the regulatory bodies than the budget cuts to the MOE (which actually began in 1992 before we blame Harris solely for it). If we're going to dump on Harris we can at least do it properly. He actually deserves it on this one.

In any case (and more on-topic), I quite bluntly told the Conservative canvassers who came to my door during the election that I wasn't going to vote Conservative anytime soon because they deserved to be out of power for another term, at the very least.

...And they were really polite and understanding about it and actually said "We're not the Harris-Eves Conservatives." So, maybe John Tory is good for the party. Who knows?

If the conservative base gets small enough that they have to start pandering to the rural wackos, it could ultimately change who the 'natural governing party' of Ontario is. All on the basis of one half-assed policy mistake. Interesting.